


Coming Home

by paintapiconsilence



Series: AxGWeek2019 [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Book and Show Canon, Canon Universe, Crossroads Inn, F/M, axgweek, axgweek2019, day 3 prompt: Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 19:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20233300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintapiconsilence/pseuds/paintapiconsilence
Summary: Arya has come back to Westeros after escaping from the Faceless Men. She's trying to find her pack, starting with her direwolf and her friend from childhood.AxGWeek2019 Day 3 Prompt: Reunion





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> For context, Arya leaves Braavos the same way she leaves in the show, but the Crossroads Inn is how it is in the books - Jeyne and Willow running it and Gendry a knight of the Brotherhood and working in the forge. 
> 
> All mistakes are my own.

When Arya stepped foot back in Westeros, she donned one of the faces she’d stolen – a peasant boy; she wanted to travel through the woods as inconspicuously as possible. She’d seen the Crossroads Inn during her wolf dreams; she knew Nymeria and her new pack had to, at least, be near there now.

She thought about the last time she’d seen _him_, how she had run away, how she had heard the Brotherhood combing the woods for her, how she had heard him yelling her name. There was a slight ache deep in her stomach, a small hope that he was still alive and that he wasn’t angry with her for taking off.

Several moons back, during one of her wolf-dreams, Arya had seen him standing outside the smithy, but the most recent ones had Nymeria’s pack at the edge of the forest, hunting large game and prowling to scare off bandits. Occasionally, the dreams were of Nymeria leaving a deer by the inn while its inhabitants were asleep, but she hadn’t gotten close enough to see if he was still there.

Arya was getting closer; she was nearly at the edge of the woods now, the moonlight shoving through the trees more than before, when she heard a growl and a few twigs snapping. Nymeria and her pack were coming closer, surrounding her. Nymeria stepped out, much closer than the others, and began to smell her. Arya had already placed Needle on the ground, but when she noticed Nymeria’s confusion, she remembered the face she wore. She removed it and placed it in her bag, and saw Nymeria’s gaze clear and move towards her again. 

“Hey, girl. It’s me, Arya,” she said as she put her hand out, waiting for Nymeria to nuzzle closer, “Did you miss me? I missed you.” Nymeria pushed her face into Arya’s hand further, and Arya scratched behind her ears.

“Can you do something for me, girl? I know everyone’s probably asleep, but can you come with me and guard the smithy while I’m inside? Just alert me if someone’s coming?”

Nymeria chirped at her, agreeing to help. She signaled to her pack to return to their den, and walked with Arya the rest of the way to the inn. Arya was relieved to see the fire in the forge still burning as she moved towards it. She left Nymeria at the door and silently went inside.

The first thing she noticed when she saw Gendry was that he was even taller than the last time she had seen him. He was facing away from her, making nails, a repaired sword cooling off in the slack tub. He’d filled out more and his hair was shorter now, but even without seeing his face, she could tell it was him.

As he put his work down and made to turn around to grab the sword, she quietly called out his name, “Gendry.”

He stilled, his body rigid in an awkward half-twist. He didn’t want to look at her face, afraid that this would just be another one of his dreams – the ones where she comes back and hugs him, but then turns into Lady Stoneheart and slits his throat for not protecting her daughter. He always woke up in a cold sweat and nauseated from those dreams.

But the urge to turn around fully and look at her face doubled when she called his name again, a little more loudly, but still hesitant, “Gendry?”

With how hard he was clenching his fists, the slight sting of his short fingernails digging into his palms, he thought maybe this one wasn’t a dream, and he finally turned.

She looked very different from the last time he saw her, and certainly different than how he saw her in his dreams. In them, she was still the child he traveled with, only cleaner. Right now, standing in front of him, she had grown up and filled out. She was taller, but still at least a foot shorter than him; her hair was longer, reaching down to her waist; her face had lost its baby fat and she had curves that weren’t there before, but he knew it was her – her eyes were that same gray that he’d missed for years.

“Arya?” he choked out, “Is it really you?” He felt the telltale burning behind his eyelids that meant tears and saw that her eyes looked glassy too. He wanted to move closer to her, hug her, but the slight fear that this wasn't real was still holding him back.

“Yes,” she said, her voice a bit hoarse. She took a breath. “Is it really you?”

He breathed out a mix of a sigh of relief and a laugh, but when he saw a single tear slide down her cheek, his feet finally moved. He swept her up into his arms, pressing his face in the crook of her neck, feeling her hands shake slightly on his shoulders. He breathed out another laugh, this one more watery, and just kept repeating, “You’re alive,” over and over again.

Arya squeezed him tighter, arms going around his neck, and laughed with him. She’d pushed down her emotions for so long, but she couldn’t hold back her happy and relief-filled tears.

When they eventually calmed down, Gendry set her back down on her feet and grabbed clean cloths so that they could wipe their faces.

“I’m sorry I ran off,” she blurted out, “I mean, I did what I needed to, but I am sorry that I hurt you – worried you.”

Gendry’s anger bubbled up in his chest, but he pushed it down and said, “You’re here, you’re alive. That’s what matters.” He paused for a moment, watching her as she scrubs her face. She’s less fidgety than she was when they traveled together. “Where’d you go?”

Her feet make no noise as she glides over to one of the stools near his workspace and sits down, “To find my family. The Hound found me first. He was going to ransom me off to them just like the Brotherhood, only we were too late.” Gendry’s sigh of relief was short-lived as she continued, “The doors were already closed. The Hound knocked me out so I wouldn’t do anything stupid and get myself killed, but he obviously didn’t hit me hard enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“I came to in time to see Frey soldiers parading my brother’s dead body around with his direwolf’s head stitched to his neck.” Her voice was near emotionless, but Gendry could see the pain in her eyes.

“And then what happened?” he softly prompted her.

She relayed the rest of her travels, of killing Frey soldiers, of finding Needle again, of going to the Vale and being turned away because her aunt had passed, of the Hound and Brienne of Tarth fighting, of going to Braavos and training with the Faceless Men, of almost dying when she decided to leave, of arriving back in Westeros and coming here to find him.

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“For a long time, I thought I was having dreams where I was a wolf; eventually I realized that I was warging into Nymeria. I saw you once, a few moons ago. I didn’t know if you’d still be here, but I… hoped. Lately, most of my dreams have been about her pack protecting this area.”

Gendry huffed a laugh. “Your direwolf? She the one who’s been leaving meat for us, then?”

As Arya made to agree, she hears a low growl and briefly sees, through Nymeria’s eyes, a girl, about the same age as her, walking towards the smithy with a bowl and some bread in her hands. She looked to Gendry and said, “Someone’s coming.”

“How do you-?”

“Nymeria’s outside the door.”

“You brought her here? Arya, someone could get hurt!”

“No one’s going to get hurt as long as that girl doesn’t-” Arya’s cut off by a high-pitched squeal, “scream…”

Arya and Gendry race out of the smithy to see the girl frozen in fear, though Nymeria’s only movement had been to lift her head and look the girl in the eyes as she approached.

Arya stands between them and speaks softly to the girl, “She won’t hurt you, she’s just protecting me, and you’re not planning to hurt me, are you?”

The girl quickly shakes her head, the bowl and bread gripped tightly in her hands. Arya’s surprised she hadn’t dropped them in her fear. She stutters out, “I-I was just bringing Gendry something to eat. H-he wasn’t at supper.”

Gendry sighs and quickly steps around the huge wolf, grabbing the bowl and bread from the girl. “Willow, I told you, you don’t have to bring me food. Jeyne said I could grab some things from the kitchen whenever I take a break.”

“You take breaks?” Arya says sarcastically.

Gendry glares at her before turning back to Willow. “Willow, this is Arry. Arry, this is Willow. She and her sister, Jeyne run the inn.”

Arya nods a ‘hello,’ but Willow’s looking rapidly between her and Gendry. She looks excitedly to Gendry again and says, “Is this her? The girl from your stories?”

“Stories?” Arya asks, looking skeptically at Gendry.

“He told us of his travels, how he came to be with the Brotherhood; how there was a girl who saved his life and knew how to swordfight and use a bow. I don’t see a bow, but there’s a sword at your hip! You’re her, aren’t you?”

Willow’s looking at her expectantly, but she turns and starts, “Gendry…”

“Yeah, it’s her.” Arya looks like she’s about to punch him, so he continues, “I never used your name, but Willow and some of the other kids wanted to learn how to fight, since the Brotherhood isn’t always here to help. Jeyne wasn’t so sure it was a good idea, so I told them about you and how young you were when you started learning. And how you taught me some.”

Arya grumbles, “I hope you at least taught them to stand sideface,” but she nods in acceptance. And Gendry smiles.

“Are you staying then? I could set up one of the rooms for you,” Willow says, still slightly buzzing from excitement. 

“Willow, I’m not sure if she’s staying.”

“Why wouldn’t I stay?” Gendry pauses and looks at her. He should tell her in private.

He turns to Willow again and says, “It’s late, she’ll stay in the smithy with me tonight, and we’ll talk about maybe setting up a room for her in the morning, okay?”

Willow agrees and bids them goodnight before going back inside.

Once he and Arya are inside the smithy again, she jokes, “Bit presumptuous of you to assume I’ll sleep here with you.” 

Gendry grits his teeth and apologizes, “Sorry, but there’s something you should know, and since Willow doesn’t know your real name, I figured it would be better to tell you once she left.”

Arya’s face is blank, but she simultaneously feels excitement and dread. “What, Gendry?”

“Your brother, Jon, is King in the North. He took Winterfell back from the Boltons.”

She lets out a relieved breath and smiles. “Jon’s okay?” Gendry nods. “And my other siblings?”

Gendry pauses. “I don’t know. I heard something about your sister being with him, but nothing more.”

Arya nods, thinking. “I have to go.” She starts towards the door.

Gendry puts his hand on her arm, stopping her movements, “You need to rest! How long have you been traveling?”

“Not long enough! My family’s alive and home, I need to see them!”

“You’re not gonna see them if you get yourself killed on your way there!”

“I can take care of myself!”

“Not well enough!" 

Arya looks murderous. “Excuse me?”

Gendry’s voice softens. “You said it yourself, you almost died in Braavos. Just sleep here tonight and we’ll come up with a plan tomorrow. Please?”

Arya reluctantly agrees, and she removes her jerkin before they lay down on the cot in his rooms behind the forge. Once they’ve settled in, Arya turns to him and puts her chin on his chest to look up at him. “Thank you for telling me.”

Gendry nods and throws his arm around her, cuddling her into his side. “Go to sleep, milady,” he says, smirking. Arya laughs and smacks him on the chest before tucking her head under his chin and closing her eyes. She’s really happy she found him.


End file.
